Matthew chapter 25, starting with verse 31 to verse 46. Our Lord spoke these words, when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His throne of glory. and all the nations will be gathered before him, and he will put them aside from one another, as the shepherd puts aside the sheep from the lambs, and he will put the sheep to his right, and the lambs to his left. Then the king will say to them, Come, you who are blessed by my Father, Hered the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink. I was a stranger, and you provided for me. I was naked, and you covered me. sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came to me." Then the righteous will answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry, and we gave you food? Or thirsty, and we gave you drink? And when did we see you as a stranger, and we picked you up, or naked, and we covered you? Or when we saw you sick or in prison, and we came to you. And the king will answer and say to you, I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these little brothers of mine, even the least of you, you did it to me. Then he will also say to those on the left, depart from me, you wicked ones, al fuego eterno preparado para el diablo y sus ángeles. Porque tuve hambre y no me disteis de comer. Tuve sed y no me disteis de beber. Fui forastero y no me recogisteis. Estuve desnudo y no me cubristeis. Enfermo y en la cárcel. and you did not visit me." Then they will also answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry, thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did we not serve you? Then he will answer them, saying, To the extent that you did not do it to one of these little ones, you did not do it to me either. And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. Let's go to our God together. Father in Heaven, we thank you for the joy that it is to be yours, the joy that it is to be one of your people. We thank you for the We thank you for the privilege that is to meet with your word together in these days of the Lord, to open your book and listen to it read and taught. Thank you for the way in which you feed our soul, that you keep us on the way. Lord, it's you doing the work, but you do it through the ministry of your word, and we give you thanks and praise. This day we need the passage that we have read and be taught by it. I ask you to be with your church, to take care of your sheep. We are aware that some will hear my voice, that they do not know you. We ask that today be the day of salvation, that today be the day when the eyes are opened and that people can come to faith in Jesus. Thank you for the way you love us. You love us perfectly. You love us constantly. You love us eternally. We give you thanks for these things. In the name of Jesus. Amen. We come to the end of this long answer that Jesus gave to his disciples in response to their question. Matthew chapter 24, verse 3, And while he was sitting in the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him, saying, Tell us, when will these things be, and what sign will there be of your coming and of the end of the century? What follows is what is known as the Discourse on the Mount of Olives. At the end of chapter 25, we get to the end of the Discourse on the Mount of Olives, and where our Lord finishes his answer. It is with a description and a declaration of a day of a great separation. When our Lord returns to this earth and inaugurates his kingdom on this earth, All those who are alive in the time of their coming will be judged. All humanity, all nations, will be brought before the Son of God. Some will be welcomed into eternal life. Some will be banished to everlasting judgment. The day of separation will manifest itself. And our Lord spoke these words, and the Spirit of God preserved these words in Scripture. So that the world may know that the day is coming. Our Lord wanted the world to know that this day of great separation is coming. And He wants especially His people to know, that we know, that this day of judgment is coming. This is not strange from Jesus. Jesus spoke frequently on the subject of judgment. It's a constant theme. John MacArthur said, no one in Scripture spoke more of judgment than Jesus. He spoke of sin that could not be forgiven, the danger of losing one's soul forever, of spending eternity in the storms of hell, of existing forever in the darkness outside. where there will be perpetually crying and gnashing of teeth. No figure of judgment is more intense and sober than that which Jesus gave." There ends the quote. that brings me this morning to the question that I want us to consider. I don't know that I've ever done it before, but it's going to be unusual for me. I want to take an entire sermon and devote it to what is really an introduction. My wife loves long introductions. No, no, no, it's not like that. So what I want to do this morning is to introduce this description that Jesus gives of the final judgment. And tonight we'll come back and go over this section verse by verse. But this morning, I just want to consider a question. And the question is this, if Jesus spoke frequently about the judgment, And if the Bible often speaks about judgment, then why doesn't His church speak often about judgment? Why is the professing church so often so silently about the judgment that is on its way? I don't know what they call it anymore. There's a word that really describes it. It doesn't matter what version. The word would be pragmatism, which I would use. But there was a time, a couple of decades ago maybe, where you heard a lot about the church movement. And you had the mega church movement. And one aspect of that movement was to diminish minimize or distance oneself from the aspects of the Christian message that the teachers deemed unpleasant for the seekers. If you want to reach people with the gospel, what you have to do is minimize those aspects of the message that the seekers that the searchers, those who search, may misunderstand or don't like. and then maximizes what we consider to be pleasant for them in the message. The theory is an attractive evangelism. That raises a question. Jesus frequently speaks of judgment, the Bible frequently speaks of judgment. How can we think that we are doing the will of God if we avoid the subject of judgment? You see this sometimes even in the context of otherwise faithful churches. You see this sometimes in the context of worship. You see this sometimes in the context of religious services. You see this sometimes in the context of religious services. You see this sometimes in the context of religious services. You see this sometimes in the context of religious services. You see this sometimes in the context of religious services. You see this sometimes in the context of religious services. You see this sometimes in the context of religious services. You see this sometimes in the context of religious services. You see this sometimes in the context of religious services. You see this sometimes in the context of religious services. You see this sometimes in the context of religious services. You see this sometimes in the context of religious services. You see this sometimes in the context of religious services. You see this sometimes in the context of religious services. You see this sometimes in the context of religious services. You see this sometimes in the context of religious services. You see this sometimes in the context of religious services. You see this sometimes in the context of religious services. You see this They start to give sentences that take the edge off of what the Bible says about judgment. We can't preach that message, that text, but we immediately have to say that God is merciful, that God is loving, and you take the edge off the sword. The same can happen in the world of worship music. songs that never talk about God's judgment, but only talk about God accepting us, and God's love, and God's grace. And I understand that the context, we're the church, we're the forgiven ones, we glorify being accepted in Christ, and those are themes we must maximize. But these are words spoken to the disciples of Jesus. He doesn't just want the world to know that the judgment is coming, he wants his people to know that the judgment is coming. Because we have the responsibility to declare that message to the world. If we're not convinced of the truthfulness of these words, we will not declare these words to people who are not yet forgiven. that one day they will find themselves in the judgment of God without being clothed in the righteousness of Christ. So, this morning what I want to think about is why so many professing Christians are hesitant to declare God's warnings about their judgment. Why are so many professing Christians ashamed of God's message? about a day like this, a day of great separation and great judgment. I want to give you five things to consider when we think about why My title for the message would be, What Happened to the Judgment of God? What Happened to the Judgment of God? I want to give you five things to think about, and this is an introduction to what we're going to see tonight. First of all, people are ashamed of the judgment of God because they are strangers to God. Ashamed of the judgment of God because they don't know God. Regeneration produces a new creation. Everyone in this room who really knows Jesus, you are not the man or woman that you were before. The Lord has saved you, transformed you, made you a new creation in Christ Jesus. And where you have a new creation, you have a new worldview. a new point of view of God, a new point of view of yourself, a new point of view of humanity, a new point of view of history, and the course of history, and the end of times, all taught to you by the God who has saved you in his word. A new creation produces a new worldview. If someone is unregenerated, if someone is not saved, They may call their God the God of the Bible, or they may call their God Jesus, but if they are strangers to God, they don't know God, you can be sure of this, that they will not present him, present his character in a way that is in accordance with the truth, but they will distort it. What they're trying to do is eliminate everything about God that is not in accord with their appetite. And this happens on both ends of the spectrum. You take the character of God, this is what Satan does, this is what demonic doctrine does, this is what lost humanity does. You take the truth that God has revealed about himself and you distort it. to be according to your appetite, and Satan doesn't care at what end of the spectrum he is distorted, as long as he is distorted. There are people, for example, who present the judgment of God as though God has no mercy, delighting in God's wrath, as if there is no grace. And on the other side of the spectrum, we have people who present God as if he were a permissive father who would never judge anyone. Anyone who has been saved understands that there's no such thing as God ignoring sin. If you know Jesus, I know you know this, God did not ignore your sin. All sin is judged. All sinners are judged. The sins of all Christians had to be judged. But praise be to our God that our sins were judged in the body of His Son on the tree. Our sins had to be paid for. Christ had to be our substitute. Jesus had to die in our place to liberate us from the wrath of God. God loved us by giving us his Son, who would take our place as our substitute, and his blood would be used to atone for our sins. Our sins were not ignored, but paid. So that God is both just and the justifier of the ungodly. That's us. God declares us just before him because he himself gave the payment for our sins and gives us as a gift the righteousness that we need to be before him and that is the justification and it is received by faith. So that it's by the grace of God from beginning to end. We don't deserve it, we don't work for it. God did it for himself, for himself, ultimately, and because he loved us when we didn't deserve his love. Romans 3.23 says, As for all who have sinned and are destroyed by the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God placed as a propitiation God making clear that he is not a God who ignores sin. Putting into the public realm the justness of the justification he would give as a gift. God put it as a propitiation in his blood to demonstrate his righteousness. A causa de haber pasado por alto en su paciencia los pecados pasados con la mira de manifestar, ¿cómo perdonas a esos santos delante del testamento? ¿Por los sacrificios de animales? ¿Acaso la sangre de machos cabríos pagará por el pecado cuando el Mesías viene? He goes to the cross and gives up his life as a substitute. God is vindicated by all the people he saved in past times. They were not saved by the blood of male goats, but by the Son of God. And the justice of God to save all of us from God is through the cross. Justification by faith, alone. So no one has ever experienced the grace of God without the knowledge of his sin. No one has ever experienced the grace of God who has not known that he is a sinner, who would otherwise have me with the wrath of God. God saved me from my sins. God saved me from his just judgment. God saved me from his wrath. This is the gospel. This is what has to be preached to all the world who are under sin. You deserve the wrath of God, the wrath is on the way, but God has made a way for you to be free from His wrath and be saved forever. It's like a gift in His Son. You can't preach the good news if you don't preach the bad news. If you don't declare God's judgment, you can't declare God's forgiveness. So why are there people who say they know Jesus who don't talk about that judgment? The answer is they don't really know Jesus in many cases. They've never really known the grace of God. They have a point of view of the grace of God that doesn't even mention sin, much less respond to sin, doesn't even acknowledge sin. mucho menos presentar la explicación del perdón de sus pecados. Algunas personas están avergonzados del juicio de Dios porque no conocen a Dios. And I say this with fear and trepidation, but I think there are many pastors of these mega-churches. They are men who, in eternity, will demonstrate that they never knew the God they spoke of in their pulpits. They were business owners trying to grow a brand in the name of religion and in the name of Jesus, but ashamed of the message that Jesus declared over and over again. Judgment is on its way. Second, the people ashamed of the judgment of God are engaging in a sinful response to mischaracterization of God. The people ashamed of the judgment of God are engaging in a sinful response to mischaracterization of God. I'm talking about people now who do know the Lord, but find themselves sort of ashamed to talk about the judgment of God, because they have met with someone, or those they're talking to, they have met with someone who has mischaracterized the character of God. Sooner or later you will meet someone with a pulpit in the church or on the street who preaches from the Bible in the name of God, talks about Jesus, but they present a God who would rather judge than save, who delights in the wrath in a way that distorts the message of Scripture. A focus on the judgment of God that is so consistent and there is no clear explanation of the grace of God. The narrative of the world is that Christians are full of hatred, and I'm describing people who have hatred, but they preach it in the name of Jesus. For some Christians, what develops is fear. I don't want to be perceived like those men or like those people. So what I want to do is come to the subject of judgment and I want to present it in such a way that makes clear that I'm not like them. But the result sometimes is actually not being faithful to God's warnings about judgment. I'm responding to God's mischaracterization in a way that I don't have the authority to do. I'm not right to do it. I'm actually sinning. It is a sinful response to my fears about people perceiving me that are associated with a mischaracterization of God. That bad preaching is not correct, but I now respond by going in the other direction without having the right to do so, removing the edge of the sword. When we talk about the judgment of God, this is a big mistake. The mistake of someone else should never distort our preaching of Scripture. How do you preach the Bible faithfully? You preach it submissively. The most faithful way you will represent your God and represent what it means to be a Christian is simply faithfully and consistently saying what He has said. And if you say it rightly, embracing not just the words but the message, You can say the words without understanding the message. You have to understand the message. But if you have the truth in your heart and you declare the truth of God, You will never be better to submissively and faithfully say what he says. And if you do that consistently, if you preach the whole counsel of God, then you will also get it right proportionally. You will speak about judgment when you should speak about judgment, and you will speak about grace when you should speak about grace. You'll talk about discipline when you have to talk about discipline and you'll talk about love when you have to talk about love. Just say what the Bible says. So when someone else is in error and I try to distance myself from that error in a way that makes me hesitant to say what God is saying, now I'm committing sin, just like they are. I want to remind us, I'm talking to people who represent God when you go to the family get-togethers. I'm talking about people who represent God when it's time for the office to get together for a party. And you're interacting in a very casual way with the people who work every day. I'm talking about people who go to school and you represent your Lord as a student wherever you're in school. We're all preaching, we're all representing our God and his word. Do you find yourself ashamed of what he says about the judgment that is going to be passed, of how you're going to be perceived? I want to remind us that we don't preach to please men, we preach to please God. Galatians 1.10. Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. Well, I'm looking for the favor of men or God. I try to please men. Well, if I still pleased men, I wouldn't be a servant of Christ. I'm afraid to speak of God's judgment because you're afraid of how they'll see you. If that's you, then you desire men's approval, having influence over you, instead of the desire to be faithful to your majority. Bible study class or service in the church that the wrath of God is on the way. When you tell people nothing but about forgiveness and they don't know that they're sinners, why do they need what you are talking about? Why don't you tell us? We don't say it because we're afraid of how we're going to be perceived. Thirdly, sometimes people are ashamed of God's judgment because they're afraid of persecution. For the rest of this sermon, I'm talking to people who are saved. My first point, some people don't talk about God's judgment because they don't know God. But now I'm talking about why we can be cowardly for a time and be unfaithful in that sense. And sometimes it's a sinful response to the error, but it's still an error on our part. But sometimes this happens. Because we're afraid of suffering. We know that if we talk about sin, if we talk about judgment, if we talk about anger, we know how people perceive us. And we know it brings trouble for us. So we seek to avoid what they need to be rescued eternally. We avoid it to rescue ourselves temporarily. I want to protect myself from the discomfort of what I would experience If I told them clearly what God says about sin and judgment, we know this, don't we? Unregenerated people hate God's truth about their sins. It's not a mild reaction. Tell them the truth about sin and judgment, and you will find yourself, in many cases, with a fervent reaction. I think I've told you the story before of Martin Lloyd-Jones. I think I've told you the story before of Martin Lloyd-Jones. I think I've told you the story before of Martin Lloyd-Jones. I think I've told you the story before of Martin Lloyd-Jones. I think I've told you the story before of Martin Lloyd-Jones. I think I've told you the story before of Martin Lloyd-Jones. I think I've told you the story before of Martin Lloyd-Jones. I think I've told you the story before of Martin Lloyd-Jones. I think I've told you the story before of Martin Lloyd-Jones. I think I've told you the story before of Martin Lloyd-Jones. I think I've told you the story before of Martin Lloyd-Jones. I think I've told you the story before of Martin Lloyd-Jones. I think I've told you the story before of Martin Lloyd-Jones. I think I've told you the story before of Martin Lloyd- They hate God's evaluation of them. They hate God's evaluation of their justice. People want to believe that they are good people, that they do good things, and that they have merit before God. They hate God's evaluation of their destiny. Hitler in hell? We understand that. My granny in hell? who never received Jesus as Lord and Savior, who never went to the door of the church, you're telling me she has met with the judgment of God? Hating God's assessment of their needs is something I can't do for myself. Do I need to be rescued? Do I need to be liberated? Forgiven? People hate that message. They hate a message that says it's by grace only, only by faith and only in Christ. not saved by the church, or by rites done in the church, or by tradition, or by saints, or by your righteous deeds, saved by Jesus. If you're going to be saved, Jesus has to save you. And people hate that message. I want to give you a biblical illustration of this. If we go to Acts chapter 7, I want to remind you of what I know you know well, but it's a great illustration of what we should face and choose. Acts chapter 7, verse 51. Stephen preaching. the good news of Jesus Christ, but how does he do it? He does it by declaring the truth about his sin. Acts 7, verse 51, You servants, uncircumcised of heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit, as your fathers did you. Which of the prophets did you not haunt? and they killed those who had foretold the coming of the righteous, whom you have now been deliverers and killers." And by the way, Stephen, he said, you said, look at our people. Look at our people. This is our history. You can't see that we're sinners and we need a savior. Even the declaration that he was coming brought people such persecution that they were murdered. And they killed these people and now the Savior came and you killed him. Verse 53, you who received the law by the disposition of angels and did not keep it. When they heard these things, they were enraged in their hearts and they gritted their teeth against him. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, He put his eyes on heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus who was at the right hand of God. And he said, Behold, I see the heavens open to the Son of Man who is at the right hand of God. But they cried out in loud voices and covered their ears, and rushed one another against him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. and the witnesses put their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. The greatest evangelist the church has ever known was present in his glory when he was a stone of a faithful messenger of God. That's the grace of God, isn't it? To save Saul of Tarsus, who we know as the Apostle Paul, and God would use him as a great instrument to declare his Son. But one day he affirmed the murder of a faithful messenger of God, verse 59. And they stoned Stephen as he went to him and said, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And on his knees he cried out in a loud voice, Here is the heart. He had declared the judgment of God, but in what spirit had he declared it? Lord, do not take this sin into account. What is it that Stephen is seeking? The salvation of them. And having said this, he fell asleep. Was he giving a bad look? Was he giving a bad PR work? Was he confronting too much? Or was he walking by the Spirit? Was he full of the Holy Spirit? Wasn't this the message that this person should have listened to? Because it was the message by which they could be saved. And we know this, that if we are faithful to what God has called us to do, not only are we going to meet with celebration, and approval, and praise, we're going to meet with anger. and anger and mistreatment. Sometimes we're ashamed of the judgment of God because we know it means persecution. Fourth, sometimes the people ashamed of the judgment of God They're not aware of the connection between love and warning. They're not mindful of the connection between love and warning. When God declares His judgments, is God unloving? When we then declare the judgments that God has declared, are we unloving? That's the narrative of the world. You speak hateful words. Is that true? In proportion, verse by verse, we preach the grace of God and the love of God, the goodness of God, but we come to God's judgment and we say without cutting the edge of the sword, we say what God has said. Isn't that loving? consider the ministry of Jonah. Jonah was used by God to see the massive awakening of a complete city, of Nineveh. What was Jonah's message? He simply announced the deadline for the disaster. 40 days and Nineveh will be destroyed. And what happened? People, by the grace of God, listened to him, not only with their ears, but with their hearts. And as a result, they surrendered themselves to the mercy of God. There was a repentant heart produced by God Himself through the message of judgment. And he issued a proclamation, saying, and proclaim in Nineveh, by the commandment of the king of his elders, saying, Men and animals, oxen and sheep, do not like any thing, do not feed them, nor drink water, but cover themselves with cilice, men and animals, and cry out unto this God, and turn each one of you from his evil way, from the rapine that is in your hands. Who knows if God will turn and repent, and will depart from the burning of his wrath, and we will not perish, the message of judgment resulted in a heart of penitence, in humility. Well, how did Jonah respond to the wonderful result of his predication? He moped around, didn't he? Why? Why did Jonah run in the first place? Why did he run? You know, some have told us he was afraid of the fierce Assyrians. He had a great reputation for cruelty. So he ran because he was afraid. No. Why don't we let him tell us why he ran? It had nothing to do with fear. It had nothing to do with the fear of the Assyrians. Jonah 4.1, but Jonah grieved at the end, and he was angry, and he prayed to Jehovah, and he said, Now, Jehovah, is not this what I said, while I was still in my country? That is why I hastened to flee to Tarsus, for I knew that you are a gracious God, and merciful, I take time to get angry at you, and of great mercy, and that you repent of evil." These people who were so bad and who have caused so much harm to my people, I want them judged, I thought, Jonas. And I knew that if I went and preached your message of judgment, you're a God who would relent from destroying them if they repented. Jonas understood what many Christians are afraid to understand, that God sends his message of judgment with a willingness to save, and that God uses his message of judgment to deliver those who otherwise would be judged. God's announcement of his wrath is not disconnected from his love. And when you can see this, you will recognize this. When you refuse to announce the disaster that is coming, then we are having a non-loving behavior. How can you see someone about to be destroyed and not tell them that? It's about a kind of love. It's about loving yourself. It's about creating a God who never exposes you to the anger of the non-regenerate people. And that love is loving yourself more than you love them. Because if you love them with the love of God, you have to tell them why they need to be saved. Some are ashamed of God's judgment because they don't understand God's love and how his warnings come with a willingness to save people. Some are ashamed because they're lost. Some are ashamed because they have a sinful response to error and they make mistakes themselves. Some are ashamed because they're afraid of persecution. Some of that happens in your own family. I'm not going to talk about sin. I'm not going to do what's right because I don't want to feel disapproval from my family. And some are ashamed because they have misunderstood the love of God. The only way that those people who love will ever be delivered is if they know that what they are doing will destroy them. Fifth, finally, sometimes people are ashamed of the judgment of God because they become drowsy to return to Christ. This gets to everything that the Lord has declared up to this final section. And Paul talks about his second coming. He said, you need to be prepared, you need to be watching, you need to be investing, you need to be working while you're watching, you need to be investing on behalf of the church. Why? Why? Because even though the master has been on the way, he is coming. And what will happen when He comes? When He comes, there is salvation. There is the liberation of those who are being persecuted by a sinful world. The sheep enter into the kingdom. But it's also a time of grief and damnation. It's a time of great separation. This great separation is going to be demonstrated when Jesus returns. And the point is, if you really believe these things, what should you be saying to your world? If you are Noah and the flood is coming, what do you say to the world? Get ready. Be prepared. Don't waste your life. You need to be liberated from the wrath of God that is coming. Our biblical reading demonstrated that. Luke chapter 3 was read earlier today, but I do want to read a portion. Luke chapter 3, verse 10. And the crowd asked him, So, what are we going to do? He has declared the foolishness of putting your faith in your descent from Abraham. Don't say, we're sons of Abraham, because God can raise Abraham's children from one of these stones. Don't put your confidence there. Verse 8, bear fruit and keep them with repentance. Now, verse 9, the axe is also set on the roots of the trees. Therefore, every tree that does not bear fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. And the people asked him, saying, Then shall we? And he answered them, saying, Whoever has two tunics, give him that which he has not, and whoever has to eat, give him that which he has not. And there also came some publicans to be baptized, and they said to him, Master, shall we? And he said to them, Do not ask for more than you have been ordered. They also asked the soldiers, saying, And we want it. And he said to them, Do not extort anyone, nor slander, and be content with your salary. And when they began to wonder in their hearts whether John might be Christ, he made it clear that he was not worthy to untie the strap of his shoes. And he describes Jesus. With this promise, he will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire. The Holy Spirit, salvation, fire, is judgment. He is the one who saves, and he is the one who judges. In fact, verse 17, his aventador is in his hand, and he will clear his era. This is the great separation, the great judgment that he is describing. And he will gather the wheat in his barn, and he will burn the straw in fire that will never be extinguished. What is John the Baptist doing? He's declaring both the judgment of God and the grace of God. And how is it described in verse 18? With this and many other exhortations he was announcing the good news to the people. This is good news. Yes, the Lord is full of grace and love, but he is just, and all sins will be paid, whether you pay for your own sins in hell forever, or you will see the one who paid for the sins of those who trusted him on the cross, and his name is Jesus. Judgment is coming, wrath is coming, but God has made the way for you to be saved. Those are good news. You can't preach the good news if you don't announce the need for it. Why? Are some people ashamed of the judgment of God? I'll close with this from James Montgomery Voice. They say, we sometimes hear people say that they cannot believe in a God from the Old Testament who is full of wrath and judgment and they prefer the God of the gentle Jesus. But they forget that it is Jesus who spoke more than any other person in the Bible clearly about hell. Matthew 25 is an example. In the parable of the talents, the master cries out, They cast the useless servant out into the darkness, where there will be weeping and crying of teeth. In the separation of the sheep from the goats, the King says to the goats, Stay away from me. To hell prepared for the devil and his angels. The chapter ends with the summary of Jesus, and they will go to eternal punishment and the righteous to eternal life. We may not like these statements, but they were spoken by Jesus, the Son of God, and I think he knew what he was talking about. We would do well to take these warnings seriously. Jesus is the Savior. God is willing to save you. Do you desire to be saved? Just as John declared when he preached the Good News and they asked, what should we do? You return from your life of sin where you have focused on yourself. A life where you have imagined that you can be in heaven based on your own goodness. The Bible says that you don't have good things, you have to return And then give your heart and life to the Son of God. Lose your life to have His. And that day, when with penitent faith you cry out to Jesus, that day will be the first day of your new life. And when Jesus returns, you will belong to that kingdom that he inaugurates. And you will be a child of God in this very moment, and a member of his spiritual kingdom in this very moment. And the church will say, Amen. Let us pray, Heavenly Father, thank you for the whole message, everything you have given us in your word. Strengthen us to be men and women who declare every word you have given us, because every word is pure. Forgive us, Lord. and when we have been ashamed to identify with the truth of your word, strengthen us. As Paul declared and prayed, to preach the truth the way it should be preached, again, with courage, not with carnal courage that makes us feel strong, but a courage produced by the Holy Spirit that places the emphasis on Jesus. And with the humility of someone who has been rescued, and with love in our hearts for all those that are now in a state that we were in before, that with kindness, but with clarity, we declare the message that you have given us to declare. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.